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Rob that is funny ooor irritating,depending LOL When I started smoothing my 1/2 axle -cascade I would get stuck when thinking about it also.No problem when just flying I really like going from a really wide 1/2 axle ,getting tighter and tighter until you end up with a cascade now back on track RANDY G or MARTIN if you cant find someone to show you.And relax it will come ps almost forgot Roy Reed!>>http://reeddesign.co.uk/kites/tricks/index.html

lots of advise already here... but what did it for me, is breaking the trick up - so to speak - get the kite to flare nicely from flying a horizontal line - then i worked on bringing the (bottom) wing around.I find myself doing the same thing as i work on the Taz - i'll cascade looking for that perfect position to pop the flatspin.

Yup, a lot of good info. If you are getting a tip wrap it's most likely that you are not allowing enough slack... and next, not allowing enough slack quick enough. I find that this is almost always the issue with someone learning a slack line trick.

tpatters video is SWEET!

Another think, notice that he's actually letting the slack hand move forward a fraction of a second before he pops the kite? To me, this is key for an axel and helps in the 1/2 axel as well.

When you watch other people do them it looks like they are not moving their hands very much. That is because they know the minimum amount they need to move and only move that much. Its also very quick.

Gentlemen, one and all. Thank you, each and everyone of you for a lot of valuable information. And thank you for the support. Now all I have to do is figure out how to put it all together. I have sat and watched Mama 74 perform this trick for hours and still I can't get it right. That is the biggest part of the frustration, while practice as been limited these days on the PNW, I have still spend a good amount of time crashing, flailing, doing the walk and of course )(*$^**()&&^^.There are a couple of great points in all this that I think I have missed 1) pop not pull. I think that on most occasions I have pulled the kite out of the sky, literally. But what I haven't figured out just yet is how to pop. I know practice, practice, practice. 2.) Slack, especially with the left hand just before the pop. That was something that I was definetly not doing. The animated video shows it pretty well and while (again) I have watched it several times, I missed it.So now with some great new insights and tutoring, I will get back to the field, as soon as it quits raining...........next month. Thanks again for all your help.

At least for me, starting the slack a _fraction_ of a second before the pop helps to depower fhe kite. Followed by the pop stops the kite from making a turn. This is maily for an axel but applies here as well.

Yes, a pull makes a turn. So if your kite is turning you need to make a small jerk and less of a pull. The pop is a small/short jerk. Too long and its a pull.

Once you have that down you can work on popping the slack line at the end to help turn the kite even more

I, too, feel this frustration with trying to learn the half axel. I've had all of the advice listed in this thread, but none of it came together until I had three people from the Ripon field show me in person. I still wasn't able to do it yet, but something in my head came together when I got home. Suddenly DPMama's video made sense!

The final thing that tipped things in my favor was practicing the hand/arm movements along with the video. It felt silly-- I was really glad nobody could see me, but creating that muscle memory was invaluable. The first time out on the field I was able to do full axels, over and over again. Gads, it was so great!

Half axels have been harder to come by, but I genuinely believe it has been because of the lack of wind-- not even enough to fly from one side of the window to the other. Now that the wind is back and kite season is starting again over here, I'll be going out there to try try again.

For me, the two main factors of the half axle is wind/speed and slack. You have to pound the slack outwards hard with the bottom wing. If you think you are throwing in enough slack, throw in more and also step/lean forward.

Wind/speed is also a big factor to the half axle. Not what the wind is blowing, but how fast the kite is moving in the current winds. Depending on where the kite is flying in the window will determine how much slack and how quickly you need to do the pop & slack/pull out. If the kite is further to the edge of the window, the slack still needs to be there (more than you realize) but the pop can be a little less aggressive and the timing is going to be slower. As the kite gets closer to the middle of the window, the aggressiveness needs to be increased (along with the intensity of the slack) and the timing has to be quicker.

This is one trick that is near impossible for me to do smoothly if you stall the kite, so try the half axle while the kite is still moving but before it gets to far out on the edge of the window. I like the trick when the kite is about 3/4 towards the edge. Once you start to get the feel of the intensity of the half axle and the amount of slack, you can start varying it for fast, aggressive half axles or slower more graceful half axles.

Oh, and did I mention that you need to give more slack and be much more aggressive when you give it?

Hi Tom,I tried all 4 yesterday, because the wind was fluctuating so much:Mamba Std and ULPrism OzoneFearless ( this one really test me every which way and I need to be really careful and quiet with it)

Once again thank you to all of you that have given such excellent advice.I made the turn on both sides last weekend. Finally got some really nice smooth steady air, took some deep breaths, slowed myself down and memorized Mama 74 hand movements.

Bye the way, Thank you Madhabitz for the courage to walk around the house trying to get the movements down "without a kite". One does really look very strange do that but by the time I got out to the Little League field and had everything in place, well the turns weren't pretty by any stretch of the imagination, but they worked. After a couple of hours, the 1/2 axel started to look OK. Not so much when I forgot to give slack with the left hand and then the right hand and then pull back with both. That is where some really really interesting kite tricks/turns would jump and bite me.

So THANK YOU ALL. Now if it would quit raining, I would love to go out and repeat it some more.Dean

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